A/N1: Hello peoples and WELCOME to the third Chapter titled 'Missing Bits' I hope you like this instalment. It's a little mose case based as I think a good Caste fic can;t be ALL romance fluff and hot sex LMBFAO!

BTW how FREAKING AWESOME was Linchpin? Best ep of the season and series so far! So much drama and tension and 'will they or won't they survive?' moments!

After several hours of very athletic sex, Kate and Rick fell into a deep and exhausted slumber shortly after midnight. Their rest was short lived however when just after two thirty in the morning Kate's iPhone began ringing shrilly with 'Livin' La Vida Loca.' The tune Rick had jokingly assigned to Esposito's number the previous week.

"Upside inside out
She's livin' la vida loca
She'll push and pull you down
Livin' la vida loca

Her lips are devil red
And her skin's the color mocha
She will wear you out
Livin' la vida loca
Livin' la vida loca
She's livin' la vida loca"

Kate groaned loudly as she woke up and disentangled herself from the sheets and the comfort of Rick's warm bulk.

"It's too earrlyyyyyyyy," Rick groaned sleepily, wrapping his muscular arms around Kate's slim waist and pulling her back to him. "Come back to beeeeeeeeeeeeeed."

"Castle get-off-me, that's Espo!" Kate snapped, her fuse shortened from the lack of sleep. "And I doubt he's ringing to enquire after my health!"

Rick let Kate go as she leaned over to his side table and picked up her phone.

"BecKETT!" she yelped as she felt Rick's mouth close over her nipple.

"Yo is Espo," her friend and colleague, replied. "We've got a fresh one in a laneway off East Eighty-Sixth, next to the Shake Shack which is at one sixty-two, Ryan and I are on our way. It's an interesting one, Castle might like this one. You two in?"

Kate groaned as she saw a decent night's sleep disappear over the horizon.

"Sure but we're not on call, how come you're the one ringing?" Kate asked with a yawn. "I thought Karpowski's team was doing the drag this week."

"They are but dispatch told me they're held up at a drop off on eighth and it's a messy one," Esposito informed her.

Kate swore.

"Yeah okay, we'll see you there in forty five." She told her colleague as she tried and failed to stifle a yawn.

"We?" Esposito teased. "You spent another night at the Castle Pit? You may as well live there."

"Shut up Javier," Kate grumped. "See you at the scene."

"Got it."

"Castle get off me!" Kate grumped as she further disentangled herself from the sheets. "We've got a fresh one on the Upper East Side. Ryan and Espo want you in."

"Gates is going to have a fit if I go out in the field with you," Rick told her as Kate climbed over his bulk and headed for the bathroom. "My arm is in a sling and she's chained me to a desk til my specialist gives me the all clear."

"Don't worry Espo, Ryan and I have gotten good at convincing her we can't possibly do out jobs without you. She'll calm down," Kate called over her shoulder. "Plus Espo asked for your input, if she gets mad at anyone she can get mad at him."

"Good enough for me."

After a quick joint shower, Kate and Rick made to leave for the crime scene. Rick scribbled a quick note informing Alexis of his whereabouts before grabbing two bananas out of the fruit bowl and following Kate out of the loft.

"What are you limping for?" Kate asked as he pulled the door shut behind them.

"I'm limping because you wrecked me," Rick replied with a chuckle "my quads, calves, triceps and biceps are killing me. That's the most athletic my bedroom theatrics have gotten since I lost my virginity."

Kate went bright red. "Oh come on, I didn't wreck you," she exclaimed as they reached the elevator and she pressed the 'down' button. "No one can have sex that hard."

"Wanna make a bet?" The Writer countered. "It must've been the adrenaline from your gym class that spurred you on. You were possessed."

"Are you complaining?" Kate purred in his ear.

"Hell no, you can bring that to the table every night if you like," Rick told her, enthusiastically."I'm sure if we did that all the time my muscles would soon get used to it. Here eat a banana, they're better at waking you up than coffee. And you'll recover better from...well you know what."

Kate gave an uncharacteristically girly giggle. "Actually I have to confess I'm a bit sore too," she admitted, taking the banana as the lift arrived with a ding. "I'm not telling you where though."

"I can guess though," Rick replied with a chuckle. "I'm smart like that."

"Ha ha."

Due to the early hours the streets of Manhattan were almost deserted so Kate and Rick arrived at the crime scene in East Eighty-Sixth Street, just over half an hour later where Ryan and Esposito greeted them just outside the Shake Shack.

"You two look wrecked!" Ryan told them as they exited Kate's car. "What the hell have you been up to?"

"Bro...do you really want that sort of information?" Esposito said as Kate shot her friends and colleagues a demonic stink eye.

"Shut up you two," the female detective, snapped. "Alright give me the heads up what are we dealing with?"

"Late night worker called 911 when he found a body at the top of the stairwell," Kevin began as he read off his notes. "Appears to be a white male, mid thirties to mid forties and...well you might want to see this. Lanie's just arrived and is examining the body so no concrete details yet."

"Alright let's do this."

Uniform let the three detectives and Writer under the yellow tape and Kevin let the way til they came to the body around which Lanie and her team were gathered. There the body of a man lay in a huge pool of blood his throat cut so badly he was almost decapitated and without his...

"Jesus is he missing what I think he's missing?" Rick exclaimed as his eyes travelled down the body to its groin.

"Yes, Writer Monkey. He is missing his unit," Lanie answered.

"Poor dude," Ryan and Esposito chorused

"Have you, uh found his..." Kate began.

"Not yet, I've only been here a few minutes longer than you and CSU are still on their way," the M.E replied.

"T.O.D or C.O.D?" the detective enquired.

"Preliminary C.O.D is exsanguination," Lanie replied, pointing to the body's neck where the blood and tissue had started to congeal. "Whatever he was sliced with, I'm guessing a large serrated knife, maybe a cleaver of some sort ruptured his carotid artery. Blood spatter indicates he would've died almost instantly. Temperature and lividity indicate a T.O.D maybe two, three hours ago tops. The crude removal of his genitalia was done post mortem."

"Well at least he was dead when...that happened." Rick commented

"What is it with guys and their unit?" Lanie wondered, rolling her eyes.

"Hey never underestimate the relationship a guy has with his unit, trust me. Every last man on earth would want to be dead before their bits were sliced off," the Writer told her.

"Got a point there Chica," Esposito said as Kevin gave a grunt of agreement.

"Boys," Kate muttered, shaking her head the hint of a smile upon her lips. "Alright guys, do what you can about setting up a canvass, there are apartments and businesses open around our T.O.D. Someone must've heard or seen something. Where's our witness?"

"Over there," Ryan replied, pointing to a young man in his late twenties, swathed in a dark grey blanket and talking to a uniformed officer. "His name is Joseph Banks."

"Okay...Castle and I will talk to him, check back with me when Lanie takes the body back to the morgue and CSU get here," Kate told the male detectives. "In fact, light a fire under CSU. The sooner they get here and collect evidence for us the sooner I can go home and get some proper sleep, ugh."

"On it boss."

"Are you going to head to the precinct before you go home?" Rick asked as they made their way over to the witness who had found the body.

"Depends on when CSU get here and how much evidence they gather before I hit the wall," Kate replied with a yawn. "Dammit, why do the interesting ones have to happen at this hour?"

"Ah admit it...you love the freaky ones," Rick teased.

"Hmm...Joseph Banks?"

"Yeah that's me," the young man speaking to the uniformed officer answered.

Kate showed the man her badge. "My name's Detective Kate Beckett, this is my partner Rick Castle. I'm wondering if you'd mind telling us how you discovered the body?"

"Yeah well I'd just finished my night shift at Nice Buns, I'm a pastry chef there and I cut through here to get through to the parking garage where I usually park my car. I saw the body and thought it was just a homeless person but I slipped on a pool of blood and went ass over tit, that's why I've got a blanket. I gave my jacket and shirt to that cop for evidence. I then rang 911 on my cell and that was like an hour ago. Did someone really cut his junk off?"

Kate pursed her lips. "It appears so," she replied. "Can you tell me your movements between ten PM and two AM?"

"Yeah...I was at work from one PM til one AM, then I knocked off and left work about two. It took me about fifteen minutes to walk down here and that's when I found the body." Joseph replied.

"And what were you doing in the hour between the end of your shift and your discovery of the body?"

"Cleaning up my workspace and staying behind for a coffee, I do that every night shift," Joseph replied, casually. "I've given the contact details of my boss and shift workmates to that uniformed cop if you want to check."

"We'll do that, par for the course of a homicide investigation. I'm sure you understand."

"Yeah I dunno what that guy did, but he must've pissed someone off," Joseph told Kate. "Not that I'm a murderer or anything but cutting off a dude's hacky sack is overkill, isn't it?"

"Certainly seems so," Rick said. "Do you know the victim at all?"

"Nah, never seen the dude before in my life," Joseph replied. "Hey when can I head home? I pulled a double shift last night and I'm fucked."

"I'm afraid you have to stick around a bit til the Crime Scene Unit technicians arrive and process you and any biological evidence," Kate replied, deadpan. "You would've inadvertently collected some particle evidence when you slipped in the pool of blood. And that needs to be collected and processed."

"Damn, can I at least get a coffee and maybe borrow a phone to ring home?" Joseph asked, making a face. "My girlfriend would be expecting me home and we have a young baby...you know. That's why I pulled a double shift. My cell battery is flat."

"I'll speak to my colleagues and see what we can do about getting you a call. I can't guarantee a coffee I'm afraid," Kate replied. "Thanks for all your help, it's been invaluable. Here's my card, don't hesitate to ring me if you have any concerns alright?"

"No problems detective."

"So any ideas who did this?" Kate asked Rick as they walked away. "Has a profile formed in your head yet?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking that whoever murdered our vic knew him. The level of ferocity of the cut throat indicates a deep level of familiarity and an even deeper level of animosity," Rick began. "He wasn't wearing a wedding ring but he had a ring tan line so I'm guessing he went out on the pull and took the ring off or is recently separated or divorced. The post mortem removal of his junk tells me the perp is most likely female...maybe an ex fling, entirely possible it's the ex wife who's discovered he's cheated. But the tan line on his ring finger looks old, so once we find out who he is, we've got to widen the pool of suspects to workmates, employees and even relatives because it might not be the ex wife."

"If Gates can't manage to convince the commissioner to put you on the payroll, I'm going to go downtown and barge into his officer and demand he put you on the roll," Kate declared as she stifled a yawn. "I'm too muddle headed to think anywhere near that straight."

"Were you on call tonight?"

"No, Karpowski's team is on the drag this week," Kate replied. "As soon as CSU has done their thing, I'm going to head to the twelfth and start up a murder board and give Gates the heads up before going home."

"You know I remember the days when you wouldn't go home til a case was solved. I'm kinda proud of you considering going home before the court case is over." Rick joked.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Rick, I'm not that anal about my job," she replied dryly as the CSU van arrived. "I'm just thorough. But I'm having issues keeping my eyes open and if I'm going to find the son of a bitch who did this...I need sleep. And proper sleep, alone where you're not feeling me up every thirty seconds." She added with a furtive hiss.

Rick grinned.

Kate and Rick stayed at the scene til CSU had processed the scene and Lanie had taken the body to the morgue. The sun had well and truly risen by then and the early morning workers and pedestrians began gathering around the cordons.

"Give me the keys," Rick insisted as they ducked back under the tape and headed back toward Kate's car. "You're too tired to drive."

Kate went to protest but screwed up her nose and dropped the keys in his hand.

"Alright but we've got to go to the precinct first," she insisted. "By the time we get there the photos from CSU would've arrived in my inbox. I want to print them out and start up a murder board. Then I promise I'll go home."

The pair arrived at the twelfth half an hour later and headed straight to the homicide department. Ryan and Esposito had arrived shortly before them and both male detectives looked dishevelled and exhausted as they began the paperwork.

"Coffee all 'round?" Rick volunteered.

"You make me a coffee bro and I'll kiss your feet." Esposito told the writer with a tired sigh.

"I won't kiss anything but you'll have my eternal gratitude." Ryan joked.

Rick made his way into the break room and within seconds was bustling around the espresso machine, expertly texturing the milk and extracting just the right amount of coffee to liven up Kate, Ryan and Esposito. When the last coffee was made, the Writer carefully carried the hot beverages out to the bullpen and distributing them to their owners.

"Hmm, thanks. That's just the ticket," Kate said gratefully, opening her eyes after swallowing a mouthful of the steaming brew.

Rick furtively brushed his hand across the back of her neck as he made his way to his own desk.

"Anytime."

Finally at 8:30am the crime scene photos came through from CSU and Kate, Ryan and Esposito printed them up.

"Okay this is what we now so far," Kate began tiredly as she began scribbling a kill zone graph on the murder board. "Our vic is a Caucasian male, thirty-five to forty-five and it appears the C.O.D is exsanguination from a severed carotid artery. The arterial spurt blood spatter patterns indicate he would've died almost instantly and our killer evidently escaped with out vic's man bits in his or-"

Kate was cut off by Rick, Ryan and Esposito collapsing in a fit of hysterical laughter.

"What?" the female detective, snapped.

"Man bits?" Ryan echoed. "Man bits? God you so sounded like you are still in elementary school."

"Oh well what term do you propose I use Captain Fantastic?" Kate retorted, trying to look mad to her friend. "I suppose I could use the proper terms penis and testicles."

The proper use of the names of the male genitalia only increased the volume of Rick, Ryan and Esposito's laughter.

"Oh for fu-and you think I sound like I'm in elementary school?" Kate exclaimed. "Kevin Patrick Ryan I never thought I'd meet a grown man that would sound as much of a little child as Rick, but you're quickly morphing into a Castle junior!"

"Hey that's not entirely a bad thing you know," Rick returned with a grin. "What if I died tomorrow? Someone would have to carry on the legacy. Alexis wouldn't she's far too sensible and it would be totally out of character for her to hold a conversation totally based on different names for the male genitalia."

"The latter is true but trust me, your legend is sufficient enough to be known in this precinct long after your death Writer Monkey," Kate teased. "So what euphemism do you three clowns propose I use for our victim's stuff, then?'

"Hacky sack?" Ryan volunteered.

"Johnson?" Esposito suggested.

"My personal favourite is meat and two veg." Rick revealed.

Kate rolled her eyes dramatically as the three men roared with laughter.

"You three are so purile!" she exclaimed. "Sometimes I cannot believe you three are functioning members of society. Kevin, you must drive Jenny around the twist. Javi, I know you drive Lanie loopy and Rick I'm not even going to start on you."

Rick laughed heartily. "Yeah because to do so in public is probably breaking several dozen pubic decency laws," he said with a smartass grin.

Ryan and Esposito laughed so hard they were bent over double.

Kate went bright red and threw the whiteboard eraser at him.

"Castle grow up!" she hissed. "I would quite like to go home sometime before lunchtime and you and Tweedledum and Tweedledumber aren't helping matters."

The three men could see Kate was venturing past amused into pissed off territory and backed off.

"Sorry," Rick mumbled. sheepishly.

Kate gave the Writer a hard stare.

"That's quite...alright," she said, softening her tone. "Care to give your opinion on this one? The one you gave me at the scene?"

Rick slid off the edge of her desk with a tired smile. "Sure," he agreed, taking a whiteboard marker from her and beginning to scrawl notes under the 'Victim' heading. "The level of ferocity of the cut throat on our vic indicates a deep level of familiarity and an even deeper level of animosity on the perp's part," he began. "Our vic wasn't wearing a wedding ring but he had a ring tan line so I'm guessing he went out on the pull and took the ring off or is recently separated or divorced, or even he's still married and wanted to keep that a secret. The post mortem removal of his junk tells me the perp is most likely female maybe an ex fling, entirely possible it's the ex wife who's discovered he's cheated. But the tan line on his ring finger looks old so once we find out who he is we've got to widen the pool of suspects to workmates, employees and even relatives because it might not be the ex wife."

"That could be the whole of Manhattan until we f-f-find out who h-h-he is." Esposito stuttered through a hippo like yawn.

"Yeah well hopefully Lanie will get back to us with a dental or fingerprint I.D then we ca-"

Kate was cut off by the bullpen's elevator announcing its arrival with a musical 'ding' and the doors opening with a metallic scraping sound. Victoria Gates stepped out and began walking down towards her office her low heeled shoes making a smart rhythmic tapping noise on the floor.

"Anyway, until Lanie gets back to us with a definite I.D I suggest we enter what we know about our vic in the missing person's database and see if we get a hit there." Kate finished off.

"Detectives? Mr Castle?" Gate inquired, catching sight of her best team as they bustled around the murder board. "What are you doing here so early? And looking dead on your feet I won't hesitate to add."

"We had a drop at half past two this morning Sir and Karpowski's team were stuck on a job on Eighth, so we had to take this one." Kate explained as Ryan and Esposito returned to their desks and Rick added to his notes on the murder board. "We were at the scene til six and have been back here since seven, trying to build a case on what little information we have. Castle's given us something to go on, a profile of the perp and Ryan and Esposito are looking into any missing persons reports from the last twenty four hours."

"And how much sleep did you four get last night?" Gates asked, crossing her arms and giving Kate a stern look.

"Erm about two." Kate revealed.

"Mr Castle?"

"About the same," the Writer admitted, turning a magnificent shade of scarlet.

"Ryan, Esposito?"

"Er not much more than Castle and Beckett Sir," Ryan stammered.

"About three," Esposito answered.

"Go home all four of you," Gates ordered. "You all look dead."

"But Sir the case-" Kate protested.

"Can wait til you four are more in the land of the living," Gates said, firmly. "It will take Doctor Parish twenty four hours minimum to get a I.D on your victim and until then there's not much you can do but theorize and it already looks like you've done as much of that as humanly possible. Detective Beckett you are not a machine and I will not have you or any of your team, yes you too Mr Castle, dropping on my watch. Go home and get some rest then come back here at nine AM sharp tomorrow morning...understood?"

Kate made a face and opened her mouth to protest but Gates cut across her with a raised eyebrow.

"Understood detective?"

Kate let out a heavy sigh.

"Understood Sir," she said in a defeated tone.

"Good, see you tomorrow morning then."

And with that Gates turned on her heel and disappeared into her office.

"I'm outta here," Ryan declared, shutting down his computer and pulling his coat off the back of his chair. "See you tomorrow."

Ryan was the first to leave and he was closely followed by Esposito.

"C'mon, let me drive you home," Rick told Kate as his computer shut down. "I'll catch a taxi from your place."

Kate gave a wan smile. "Thanks," she responded, pulling on her jacket and stifling a huge yawn. 'Though the way I'm feeling now you'll have to carry me upstairs, I've had it."

Rick grinned. "I wouldn't complain about that," he said, holding out his hand and lacing his fingers through hers.

Half an hour later, Rick and Kate arrived at Kate's apartment building. Soon as the female detective's car was locked. He bent down and scooped her up into his arms.

"Ahhh!" she yelped. "Rick what are you doing?"

"Carrying you, what does it look like?" the Writer replied with a grin as he held her firmly to his muscular frame.

"I am not that tired!" Kate exclaimed half heartedly, wrapping her arms around his neck to balance herself. "Oh you are such a goofball!"

Rick grinned and kissed her chastely on the lips. "I know," he said in amusement. "Yet you still love me."

Despite her exhaustion Kate smiled. "Yeah I do," she admitted, relaxing into his grasp.

Rick carried Kate all the way up to her third floor apartment and despite her protests didn't put her down til he awkwardly unlocked her apartment door and took her through to her bedroom.

"That was sweet Rick but you could've let me down at the front door," Kate told him, half heartedly as the Writer lay her down on her bed.

"Oh come on, I've always wanted to carry a girl across the threshold of her apartment and I did that just now," Rick answered with childlike enthusiasm. "Don't rain on my parade, I've just struck another thing off my bucket list."

Kate laughed as the Writer dropped down on the bed beside her.

"You know generally it's only married couples who do the across the threshold thing," she said, pulling off her jacket and throwing it in the direction of the lounge chair in the corner of her room.

"True but I never wanted to do it when I was married. I thought it was a bit kitsch," Rick revealed. "With you I've been more inclined to do all the sickeningly sweet typically couple-y things two people do when they're in love."

"So the six foot high teddy bear with the 'Be My Valentine" belly, embroidery sitting in my chair and two dozen roses on my desk on Valentines Day that I'm still getting hell about was out of character?" Kate asked in surprise as she kicked off her ankle boots. "But you have the reputation of a lothario playboy and the king of romance."

Rick rolled his eyes. "That impression the public have of me is a total load of bullshit," he said with a groan. "Paula my wonderful erstwhile PR girl thought early on when I first started getting big that portraying the image of a playboy would help my image and boost sales. It did but honestly I've never been comfortable with it. I'm established enough now that image doesn't really matter anymore. Truth be told I've only ever been with five well six women that way, my entire life."

Kate's eyebrows disappeared into her fringe. "That's your number?" she asked in surprise. "That's not exactly the answer I was expecting."

Rick grinned and leaned forward and brushed his lips against her neck. "What did you think my number was?" he whispered, suckling on the nape of her neck.

A little moan escaped Kate's lips as the Writer pulled aside the neck of her shirt and kissed along the line of her left clavicle.

"M-more than s-six," she whispered. "Mmm that's nice."

Rick pulled back with a grin. "I never thought I'd shock you, Katherine Beckett," he said in amusement, reaching up and tucking a whisp of hair behind her ear.

"You did especially seeing as I never thought my number would be bigger than yours," Kate muttered her face turning a magnificent shade of scarlet.

Rick collapsed in a fit of laughter. "Really?" he chortled. "Are you serious?"

Kate covered her face with her hands and nodded. "Don't tease, its mean." She huffed as she unbuttoned her shirt.

"Aw is ickle Katie Beckett embawwassed?" Rick teased in a baby voice. "Awwwwwwwww."

Despite her mental and physical exhaustion, Kate reached behind her and with lightning quick reflexes grabbed her pillow whacking Rick over the head with it.

"I've lost count!" she yelped, whacking him again. "God I can't believe I'm telling you this!"

Rick fell back on the bed and roared with laughter as the female detective continued assaulting him with her pillow.

"Ahhh get off me woman!" he yelped. "Ahhh!"

"Most of them were in college too!" Kate revealed once she was too tired to continue on.

"So your adventurous streak in the bedroom stems from your wild college partying days then?" Rick asked, propping himself up on his hands his hair adorably mussed up.

"Yeah you could say that," Kate replied, mysteriously as she lifted up her hips to shimmy out of her trousers. "I had a wild child phase late in high school then it tapered off when I started college but after Mom died, it came back with a vengeance and I partied hard in all ways if you get my drift. When I joined the force I calmed down and grew up."

"Katherine Beckett, I learn things about you every day." Rick said with a grin, watching her totally strip off and slip into a pair of silk pyjamas she had purchased a Victoria's Secret. "How many layers of the Beckett onion are there?"

"I don't know, I'm still discovering that myself," Kate confessed as she got under the covers and pulled the quilt up under her chin. "Will you lay with me til I fall asleep?

Rick smiled his stomach once again flooding with butterflies at the almost child like request.

"Sure, be more than happy to," he said, laying down beside her and spooning her slim frame with his muscular one.

Due to her exhaustion Kate soon fell into a deep slumber. Rick stayed with her, stroking her brunette tresses til he began drifting off himself. It took all his self control but he yanked himself away from the threshold of sleep and called a Taxi, determined after a well earned rest to return to the Johanna Beckett case files.

A/N1: So wha did you think huh huh?

Not pushing but it would be nice for al the story alerts and author alerts to turn into reviews once in a while, just sayin' :-D